When looking at old records, one often sees Jno (or in handwritten documents J with the 'no' as a raised superscript) used as an abbreviation for the name John. Other than the obvious question as to why abbreviate John at all, I have often wondered how the abbreviation Jno came to be used. The letters n and o are reversed. Some people may claim that the abbreviation stands for Jonathan but that makes even less sense. Every case that I have seen where this abbreviation is used traces back to the full name of John rather than Jonathan. In fact, Jonathan is usually abbreviated as Joh. So this has been given as the reason that Jno is used to indicate John rather than Jonathan. (Not that that makes any more sense. Why not Jhn?)
Does anyone have a plausible explanation?

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